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written and directed by Jimmy Hogg

The Roodie Pancake Experiment, Toronto Fringe Festival, Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, Toronto

July 6-16, 2005

This would-be absurdist comedy presents us with three seemingly grown-up but infantile siblings who do nothing but sleep, eat and watch television.  Playwright Jimmy Hogg has created a nuanceless telegraphic speech pattern for the three, though one, illogically enough, not influenced by television.  When their set breaks down the siblings are thrown into despair and boredom.  So are we.  Their lives pre- and post-TV are repetitive and not very funny.  It’s uncomfortable that Hogg portrays developmentally challenged people as amusing.  Still, as actors,  Mark Andrada as the Brother and Hogg himself as a hapless door-to-door vacuum-cleaner salesman show real comic potential.   

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-07-14.

Photo: Jimmy Hogg. ©2005 The Roodie Pancake Experiment.